Thursday, November 14, 2013

Following Singapore's amendment of their drug laws, to escape the death penalty, the accussed needs to satisfy 2 conditions - (1) Must get a CERTIFICATE OF SUBSTANTIVE ASSISTANCE from the Attirney General's Chambers, and (2) prove on a
balance of probabilities, that his involvement in the offence under
section 5(1) or 7 was restricted — to transporting, sending or
delivering a controlled drug; to offering to transport, send or deliver a
controlled drug; to doing or offering to do any act preparatory to or for the
purpose of his transporting, sending or delivering a controlled drug; or to any
combination of activities above;

Hence, the Singapore AG (not the court) just has too much power to decide who is hanged and who lives.

In the case of Vui Kong thankfully they gave him that 'Certificate of Substantive Assistance' in September, and now finally Vui Kong has escaped being hanged to death...

PETALING JAYA: Yong Vui Kong, the
Malaysian who has been in death row in Singapore since 2009 for drug
trafficking, has been spared the noose.

He will now be imprisoned for life and given 15 strokes of the cane,
according to lawyer Ngeow Chow Ying, vice-chair of the Civil Rights
Committee of the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall who has
been spearheading a "Save Vui Kong" campaign.

She said the Singapore High Court decided Thursday on the
re-sentencing of the Sabahan's case, which has attracted a lot of
attention.

Last year, the Singapore Government announced changes to the
mandatory death penalty, allowing death row inmates to be given a
lighter sentence if they met certain conditions.

If the Attorney-General finds that they meet these conditions, it
will issue a Certificate of Co-operation (CoC) allowing the inmate to
apply to the courts for the death sentence to be set aside and to be
re-sentenced.

Yong, 25, from Sabah, was sentenced to death after he was convicted
on Jan 7, 2009, for trafficking 47gm of a controlled drug diamorphine on
June 13, 2007, a capital offence under Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act.

He was only 18 when he was arrested.

According to a statement by the Singapore Attorney-General's Chambers
(AGC) in September, Yong and Subashkaran Pragasam, a Singaporean on
death row, have assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau in disrupting drug
trafficking activities within and outside Singapore.

The AGC said if Subashkaran and Yong were able to prove to the court
on a balance of probabilities that they were traffickers who only played
the role of couriers, the prosecution will leave the sentence to the
discretion of the court.

Subashkaran and Yong were the first two people awaiting capital
punishment, who the Public Prosecutor decided to issue certificates of
substantive assistance under the amended Misuse of Drugs Act.

Yong Vui Kong may escape death penalty

Yong Vui Kong

Attorney-General’s
Chambers to issue certificate of substantive assistance to two death
row inmates for helping disrupt drug trafficking

18 September

SINGAPORE — Convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Yong Vui Kong may
escape the death penalty after the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC)
said today (Sept 18) that he had “substantively assisted the Central
Narcotics Bureau in disrupting drug trafficking within and outside
Singapore”.

In a statement, the AGC said that Yong and
Subrashkaran Pragasam will be the first two persons awaiting capital
punishment to receive certificates of substantive assistance under the
amended Misuse of Drugs Act.

The AGC said that it today informed the respective counsels
for Yong and Subrashkaran that the public prosecutor will certify to the
High Court of their substantive assistance to the CNB.

The AGC
said that it will leave the sentencing of both men to the court, if they
are able to prove “on a balance of probabilities that they were
traffickers who only played the role of couriers”.

Yong, 25, was
found guilty of possessing over 42gm of heroin in June 2007. His case
has attracted international attention with his counsel, Mr M Ravi,
asking Malaysia to bring his case to the International Court of Justice
in 2010.

Subashkaran, 29, was sentenced to death in October last year for possession of heroin.

"...In order to better appreciate the
significance of this Certificate and what it entails, we must first look at the
relevant portion of the law which provides for its issuance by the Public
Prosecutor. This relevant portion is s 33B(1) and (2) of the Misuse
of Drugs Act.

In short, s 33B
(1) empowers the court with the option of sentencing the convict to
imprisonment for life.

In order to do so, however, the convict must satisfy two
conditions provided in 33B (2), namely:

(a)
The person convicted proves, on a
balance of probabilities, that his involvement in the offence under
section 5(1) or 7 was restricted — to transporting, sending or
delivering a controlled drug; to offering to transport, send or deliver a
controlled drug; to doing or offering to do any act preparatory to or for the
purpose of his transporting, sending or delivering a controlled drug; or to any
combination of activities above;

(b)
The Public Prosecutor certifies to
any court that, in his determination, the person has substantively assisted
the Central Narcotics Bureau in disrupting drug trafficking activities
within or outside Singapore.

Out of the two conditions set forth
by the section above, Yong has already fulfilled one as the Certificate of
Substantive assistance, is a written affirmation by the Public Prosecutor of
the requirement set out in s 33B(2). He now needs to prove to the Court,
on a balance of probabilities, that his role was merely that of a “drug
courier” (i.e. simply transporting, sending, or delivering the heroin), as well
as to convince the Court that they should reverse his sentence of death, and
substitute it with imprisonment for life with caning. Noting the Prosecution’s
indication that they will not seek the death penalty, the latter may be
fulfilled more easily. - The Singapore Law Review, 31/10/2013, How substansive is 'substantive assistance' ? by Joshua Kow

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